Computers & Home Networking

[Aaron-GS Community Connector]

Hey everyone,

By now I’m sure that many of you have heard or read about Best Buy’s Blue Label Collection – brand name laptops designed based upon the feedback we received from customers to address their top computing pain points.  Well, for back to school we are continuing this new approach to designing computers and asked college students to help us design a laptop that would work best on their campus. With their feedback in mind, Best Buy partnered with HP, Toshiba, Sony and Dell to create the next line of laptops based on customer feedback that we are calling Next Class.

Here’s what we were told:

• “I’m paying for it myself so I can’t spend a fortune. It would be great to have software already included: For sure, Microsoft Office. And 12-15 months of antivirus protection.”

• “I need a laptop that’s really portable – 14”-15” will fit in a backpack – and a screen big enough for easy viewing.”

• “I need a battery that lasts a long time. With back-to-back classes I don’t have time to charge it up.”

• “I want a laptop that looks good at school and looks right during a job interview or an internship; unique design but not too flashy.”

Well, what did we come up with? Four exclusive laptops that come preinstalled with a full version of Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007 and 12-15 months of antivirus protection, each designed to easily fit into a student’s backpack or tote bag. For more information though I’d recommend checking out the following links:

·        
Next Class collection – www.bestbuy.com/nextclass

View all collections designed based upon customer feedback www.bestbuy.com/youspokewelistened

• Dell Studio 1440-022B
• HP Pavilion DV4-1465DX
• Sony VGN-NW125J/T
• Toshiba Satellite M505-S4940

Message Edited by Aaron-GS on 07-08-2009 09:55 AM

Message Edited by Aaron-GS on 07-08-2009 09:58 AM

[Matthew-GS Community Advocate]

Thank you for this great update, Aaron-GS!

Also be sure to check out the Next Class discussion here on the Best Buy Forums!

[Nokia]

I think it'd benefit a lot of students if the laptops were avaliable for a cheaper price without the software, as the AV can be gotten for free, and Office can usually be purchased at a heavily discounted rate, or even for free, through many schools. Or OpenOffice can be used. 

[Adamtech Emerging Expert]

The laptops are not badly priced, even for students. Most students in my college town purchase Macs anyways but it is great to offer an all-in-one solution that includes the software they will need.

[lilypad3]

I actually don't like any of the "Next Class" line of laptops made.  I am entering college this year and I already own a Microsoft Office cd and I am recieving free anti-virus software from my college.  To me, paying for those two items is a waste of a good $100-150 since I am paying for it.

It would have been nice if all of the laptops made had a 4GBsystem memory and a large hard drive (350 GB - 500 GB).

Since I do use photoshop and play a couple games, a fast processor and a good graphic card is a necessity to me.  While the battery life on a couple of the laptops are nice (4-6 hours is amazing), I can live with 2-3 hours and so can most college students.

Just felt that that information could be useful to any Best Buy worker in the future. 

[Starflyer59]

The majority of major colleges and universities offer Microsoft Office for free or at a huge discount.

I (facutly/staff) can get any Microsoft Product for free (ISO and burn my own disc) or if I want them to provide the cd/dvd then it is something like $12.

Students can get Office 2007 or Vista Ultimate for $14.

[JM885]

I got to say the one of the current PC's i recommend a lot to students on a budget is the new Gateway NV5214u. 4 gigs of RAM 320 HDD with built in wireless N and a dedicated 256 ati card. That computer has to be close to cost of the parts inside because at 499 its a steal. The PC is already backordered after 3 weeks of sales if that indicates anything. My store alone when we had them sold 19 of them in the 4 days.

[Aryq46254]

---

Starflyer59 wrote:

The majority of major colleges and universities offer Microsoft Office for free or at a huge discount.

I (facutly/staff) can get any Microsoft Product for free (ISO and burn my own disc) or if I want them to provide the cd/dvd then it is something like $12.

Students can get Office 2007 or Vista Ultimate for $14.

---

I have to agree...  the 2-year community college I just finished up at offered Office as a $10 purchase from the bookstore for students... and the 4-year I'm starting at this fall offers it free to students for download or as a $20 purchase from the bookstore.  Virtually all colleges offer Office (and other Microsoft products) like this to students... so including it with these laptops isn't really all that "important" in the scope of things.

That being said, I can't wait until the fall semester starts... at that time I'll have access to the full Adobe Creative Suite 4 from my new college.  *woot*

Just my .02...

~Aryq~

[Hilltop]

I think the HP laptop looks really nice. I have bad experiences with HP and their reliability though. Had two of those laptops for my family's use and both were on life support in less than a year. Maybe it's an isolated case, but that's my experience.

[rvolkcpa]

We've had good experience with HP laptops and as a result purchased the HP Next Class as a replacement for our son's 4 year old HP.

The only problem we had was that the promised 12 months of Norton Internet Security was not included with the computer.  We went back to the store and were told it's "an HP problem" that many customers have experienced and HP should take care of it.  Our son contacted HP and was told that it's a BestBuy problem.  We called BestBuy customer service and a helpful rep said that the store could install Norton.  Getting the store to install Norton was very difficult.  They wanted to install Kapersky antivirus, even though Norton Internet Security was clearly indicated on the specifications for this package.  The Geek Squad rep would have been happy to just let us return the computer than provide what was advertised.  He finally installed Norton. 

I hope other Next Class customers are not having similar problems, because the computer is a well-equipped package.